For all the talk from politicians and conspiracy theorists that Epstein should have remained under such scrutiny behind bars,
prison experts say suicide watch is intended for only short periods because it puts too much stress on the staff and inmate alike. "It's just not humane to keep them on those restrictions indefinitely," said Lindsay Hayes, a nationally recognized expert on inmate suicide prevention and a project director for the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives. The 66-year-old Epstein was awaiting trial on charges of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls when he killed himself, taking his life amid a cascading series of breakdowns at the MCC's Special Housing Unit, a chronically overcrowded, understaffed lockup-within-a-lockup that has held some of the world's most notorious terrorists, drug lords, sex traffickers and swindlers.